But will this guys take the money now, or even trust anyone connected with them?

Well, at least they can say they did their best to help. Currently, I don't think they aren't going all out to help these guys.

You're right! I will continue to work with everyone involved. Another accelerator was interested in possibly taking Status.ly in for their summer program, and I let Jamie know.

Your equivocal words aren't going to help-"Possibly". And, they don't need the money couple months from now; they need it now.

I think at this point Danny has learned his lesson about not promising more than he can deliver. If he was contacted by another accelerator which said that they might be interested in taking Status.ly, he's exactly right to say "possibly".

My point was to get something more solid.

So, how about you pull your checkbook and compensate those guys for ripping their lives up on your promise?

That seems to be the least you should do, given that you've 'seen the light' and realize how badly you f'd up.

Seriously. I have a hard time believing that anyone who can found a startup incubator can't afford to give at least a couple grand to each of the founders that got nixed. It's the least you could do; compensate for airfare home and give them something to use for housing, food, and other necessities while they try to figure out how to support themselves going forward.

I don't know what the contracts said and I'm sure they were very one-sided, as usual, but this should serve as a lesson to startups that they shouldn't get on without proper legal protections in place.